"It is the most humble of vessels for New York City foodstuffs, ubiquitous at Chinese takeout joints and halal street carts. In pre-Starbucks days, coffee came packaged in its puffy embrace. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, whose regulatory lance has slain fatty foods, supersize sodas, and smoking in parks, is now targeting plastic foam, the much-derided polymer that environmentalists have long tried to restrict."

"New York State's decision to lift a four-year ban on natural gas drilling faced further delay on Tuesday after officials conducting a key health impact study asked for more time to form their conclusions on the divisive issue."

Freelance writer Christopher Ketcham is based in Brooklyn, New York, and Moab, Utah. His work has appeared in Harper's, Orion, The American Prospect, Vanity Fair, GQ, and more. He received a grant in the Winter 2012 cycle of the Fund for Environmental Journalism to report on the Colorado River in the context of Southwest sustainability.

"Esther Tauscher stood outside her Staten Island home, leafing through boxes of family photos that had been steeped in storm water. She paused to point out life events -- her honeymoon, holding her baby boy in a hospital bed."

The Middlebury Fellowships, directed by Bill McKibben, each year help 10 early-career journalists work through an ambitious reporting project from the beginning through publication or broadcast. The program runs week-long residencies for the selected Fellows at Middlebury College, VT, in the fall and at Monterey Institute for International Studies, CA, in the spring. $10,000 stipend. Apply by May 15, 2013.

"PORTLAND, Maine -- More than 1,000 people rallied in Portland on Saturday in what was billed as the largest protest yet against the possibility of so-called tar sands oil being piped in from Montreal."